In the end, and I know this from experience, you will judge yourself. You will judge whether your belief system was right or wrong. God does not judge. And in some ways that is even more scary than thinking God will judge you. You will judge yourself! At the moment of death we read from others that your life will flash in front of you. I know that it is slightly more than this. I died and left my body and went into the light and I saw my life from another state, from my buddhic body and I saw everything I had done and everyone whom I had influenced and all the conversations both good and bad and all the experiences and how they influenced me and how I influenced others. I saw what my beliefs did to myself and to others. I instantly knew what beliefs were right and which were wrong and where I got them and who I affected with them. I saw the reason why things happened as they did from a different perspective. I could see how my words affected the person I spoke to and what actions they took as a result of my words. For example, if you told someone they were good for nothing, you might see the outcome of that person not being able to hold down a job for the rest of their lives.
Another example is when my mother thought she needed to take my child away because I was going to Colorado for a three week vacation and she found that very irresponsible of me. When she died she saw that I truly was going on vacation and that it was good for me and my child to take that vacation and a lot of great bonding happened during that time. So she saw at the moment of her death that she had made a mistake in her actions there because of her belief system. Luckily it had no deleterious effect on anyone except for hurt feelings all around. And I had already forgiven her for that anyway.
So you see everyone you affected for good and bad. And the feeling is immediately one of asking for forgiveness from those you have harmed. We have all harmed other people in our lives. And in that single flash of an eye you may see that those people have indeed forgiven you for harming them already.
And some may have not.
( it is vitally important for us before we leave this planet to forgive everyone who may have harmed us in any manner, for their sakes, not ours. We may leave at any moment so do your forgiving now.)
I was fortunate in that all those I had harmed had already forgiven me and I was free to go on into the Unity with God. We cannot unite with God unless we have this forgiveness. It is the thing which separates us from God. God does not hold us separate. He does not judge us or cause any separation. We do. We judge ourselves and we cause our own separation from full unity in Him.
I also should tell the other side of the coin here. In this same instant you are given the opportunity to see why people did things to you that were harmful or unjust. You finally see the why in someone's actions. You can see the reality they were coming from, their own belief system. My mother was really trying to protect my daughter. In her heart she did what she thought was right and good. And how could I not forgive her instantly knowing why she did what she did. Of course! There was nothing to forgive! She was loving me and my child! I bless her for her love even if it was displayed in a less than perfect way! WE are humans!
So you see all the reasons why things happened to you. Why your Mother didn't love you enough, why you didn't get that job you wanted so much, everything. And in this instant you see and finally understand and forgive those that have hurt you in any way. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." You suddenly know what you have done and why others did what they did.
It was a life changing experience for me. No doubt. But it taught me that I will be the judge of myself. It is in this review of your life, what you have done and what others have done to you that you either give forgiveness and receive forgiveness from and to everyone and everything in your life or you refuse to take and give forgiveness. If you refuse to take or give forgiveness, that is your choice and if you refuse to forgive, you can hang around the Lower Worlds until you change your mind. Some souls hang around until the one they can't forgive also passes on and has this experience, sees what really occured at that time. Then and only then when the first soul is sure that the one he can't forgive sees what really happened, that he can finally forgive and they both go into unity. And if you refuse to take forgiveness you can hang around the lower worlds until you change your mind. It is not God who decides. It is your free will choice. God wants unity. God has always offered you complete Union in Him and with Him and through Him and for this I get on my knees and give thanks!
I chose to come back to this world and complete a life here. It was my choice to come back or not. I came back because my little girl was only 3 years old and I was a single Mom and as much as I wanted to go to that union in a total way I also knew that God had given me a gift here and a responsibility to this little girl who I loved so dearly and so I came back.
It is not God who will forgive you for what you believe. God is beyond forgiveness as He can see exactly why you believe what you believe and exactly why you have acted and thought and spoken as you have. He is not into judgment. He is a God of love. It is you who will judge you. It is you who will see that because of a wrong belief you forced your employees to wear red ties. It will be up to you to forgive yourself for that and to ask their forgiveness for making them do that.
In the end what I have learned most is to not judge others. When I looked on my life I saw that the most grievous errors I had made was in judging others. As I judged them, so I was judged by them. These were the hardest things to obtain forgiveness for. I created wrong beliefs for them and now they have lived with wrong beliefs because of me. The worst feeling.
So I do not judge, My God help me not to judge, because I don't want to make that most grievous error.
If I do not judge others I also don't need to judge myself.
Sure, I can see my errors and correct them but that is not judgment, that is being human and taking responsibility for my life.
But if I judge, I am judged and that is the worst. So it is up to me to examine my beliefs and try to maintain good and true beliefs. This is what buddhism is all about. This is the purpose of recapitulation. We have many tools available to us to help us with our beliefs. And basically if you do no harm to yourself or others, if you are living a life free of judgment with a decent belief system that you monitor, and you are impeccable in your thoughts, words and actions, you are preparing yourself for complete union in God and you will find that union right within this living life now and here.
You do not wait till you die to achieve unity with God. It is here and now. Jesus showed us that it is possible for a human being to be in complete unity with God on this planet now. Reach out for it as it is here available to you right now. We are all human! God knows that! He isn't waiting for you to become something else! He isn't waiting. You are waiting. For what?
God is love and there is no judgment in God. There need be no judgment in you. I share this most important thing I have ever learned with you now. It may not make sense to you and I don't expect it will but I share it with you because it is so important and I think you might begin to see what I am saying. I wish I could share this piece of pure wisdom with everyone but very few can really understand what I am saying. It seems to be something you need to experience for yourself. But by then it is over and you can't come back and try to do better. You now have a piece of my soul knowledge.
And finally, in my teaching, take what works for you and throw the rest away.
Aho!
Shaman Elder Maggie
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I woke up this morning and a friend had written to me about forgiveness- and I spent the rest of the day thinking of forgiveness and practicing it... and then I read this post.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful thoughts and so beautifully, so clearly expressed. Thank you so much for writing this!